Although I hand washed my new baby today, it occured to me that I do not recall any forum posts regarding the antenna removal if you want to take the car to a car wash. Is removal even necessary? Does it simply unscrew? I tried to unscrew it but it did not feel like it was threaded.
I do not see any reference to this in the owners manual, and there is only one small paragraph in there regarding the antenna.
Pat
#271

scottf200

01-03-2011, 09:52 PM

Although I hand washed my new baby today, it occured to me that I do not recall any forum posts regarding the antenna removal if you want to take the car to a car wash. Is removal even necessary? Does it simply unscrew? I tried to unscrew it but it did not feel like it was threaded.
I do not see any reference to this in the owners manual, and there is only one small paragraph in there regarding the antenna. Pat
#271

Why would you take off the antenna? Is this a requirement of other cars or of the carwash? I'm quite confused.

volt11

01-13-2011, 02:49 PM

Why would you take off the antenna? Is this a requirement of other cars or of the carwash? I'm quite confused.

I always used to remove the mast antenna on our GMC Envoy before running it through a car wash; sometimes even the wash crew does it. However, I stopped doing that and the antenna has been perfectly fine.

The Volt antenna is kind of a "tweener". Bigger than an OnStar only antenna, but smaller than a mast. I'm inclined to just leave it as is. Was just thinking about all this since I'll probably bring my Volt through its first car wash this weekend. It's still too cold here to give it a home wash. I'm nervous! ;) Still, I've sworn now to not pamper this car by keeping it out of the muck and so forth (even though the Envoy still sits faithfully by to do the dirty work.) I figure I'm on a 3-year lease, I'm paying for 15,000 miles a year, so why not use that sucker! :cool:

Slapshot28

02-13-2011, 05:37 PM

The car wash I use says the antenna is no problem at all. That said, they took a long hard look at the low front air dam. (I think both are okay for modern car washes.)

Nevertheless, so far, I've opted for hand washes only. It's worth it because it gives me more time to watch the gawkers... :-)

Steverino

02-13-2011, 11:08 PM

I'd be inclined to remove it. I've had trim ripped off of one car when the "seaweed kelp" clothes got snagged somehow. Hate to have something get damaged just becuase I didn't take 30 seconds to unscrew an antenna.

supafrovolt

02-14-2011, 09:02 AM

I've been taking the antenna off. It only takes a good 20 seconds and really I've not experienced any signal issues without the antenna.

maharguitar

02-14-2011, 09:24 AM

Slightly of topic. I remember watching an episode of The Simpsons where Homer drove his car through the car wash. They showed what went on inside the car wash with all sorts of robotic arms washing the car. The last step in the car wash process was a mechanical arm came down, grabbed the antenna, and broke it off.

faz

02-14-2011, 02:17 PM

I took my Volt through an automatic car wash this weekend and didn't have any issues. Actually, I forgot about the antennae until after I was already watching the big brush go from the windshield up and over the roof... but no harm done. Everything was still in place afterwords.

JohnCraig

03-30-2011, 01:34 AM

I've been taking the antenna off. It only takes a good 20 seconds and really I've not experienced any signal issues without the antenna.

OK - but tell us -- how do you take it off? Does it unscrew? Pull-off? Snap-off and later re-solder?

voltage692

03-30-2011, 07:07 AM

It's designed as a hand unscrew.

OK - but tell us -- how do you take it off? Does it unscrew? Pull-off? Snap-off and later re-solder?

Chevrolet Customer Svc

04-01-2011, 09:44 AM

Although we do not validate ALL car washes, we do take the Volt through many different types of car washes during the development/validation phase. In fact, during durability testing the Volt went through the automatic car wash several (100+) times and it also received a few hand washes! We even have a special car wash for testing on our Proving Grounds in Milford, MI. The Volt has been designed and validated to go through car washes without any issue - no need to remove the antenna. If fact, in most cases it is better to leave the antenna in place in order to keep water from getting into the antenna assembly.